http://monkeystone.com/pressrelease.htm

Romero as Lead Programmer and CEO? Stevie Case as VP and Production Person?

'According to Romero, "We're getting back to our roots: small fun games on a stable platform that can be developed within months. Everyone is multi-talented and because of that, we can stay small -- which is how we like it here at Monkeystone. It's great being able to get things done instantaneously because everyone is right here working together."'

The punchlines write themselves.

I wonder if they're going to do GBA games? That has to be a bigger market than PocketPC.

You'd think so... I don't know why anyone is developing stuff for pocket PCs. Granted, the "out-of-the-pocket" PC market is dying down a bit, but I still don't see games for a computerized daytimer as a profitable venture.

I was gonna make a crack about "Hyperspace Delivery Boy" coming out 3 years late and $10 million over-budget, but I couldn't decide how to phrase it...

Well, at least they've finally realised that their skillsets have not kept pace with the advancement of modern game development.

John: "Hmm. It would seam we suck at making sophisticated 3D computer games."

Tom: "Yeah, I wish we could just make Commander Keen games again, they were so easy! But nobody'll pay for that kind of stuff anymore..."

John: "Unless..." *lightbulb-over-head* "I know! we could make Commander Keen games for PDAs!!!"

Tom: "Yeah, we can call the company Monkey-ass or something. And sell our games on the net!"

John: "Hey, can we give my girlfriend a job?"

Tom: *rolls eyes*

Ha Ha.

Did you notice that they included career highlights for everyone BUT John Romero? I mean, making a million people his bitches deserves at least some mention.

At least they picked a name that lends itself to bad puns in review titles.

As for PDA games, there's a pretty big industry -- dozens of good titles each year, now. I have to admit my faves are the simpler games, like Bejeweled. Think of the places you can pull out a Sony Clie or Palm m505 out and start playing a game without getting a second look -- places where you'd look like an idiot playing with a Game Boy Advance. CGW editorial meetings come to mind. (If only they'd had the multiplayer-over-IR games back then!)

But to do games for the Pocket PC market is an... interesting... decision. Despite the masterful job of PR that Microsoft and Compaq have done this year, it remains that Palm OS devices outnumber Pocket PCs 10 to 1. And 90% of Pocket PC sales are to the Enterprise market -- yeah, the guys in the $1,500 suits really dig platform games.

Game Boy Advance makes the most sense, but that's a lot more development $$$ and Nintendo has to sign off on your game. Palm makes sense -- Pocket PC is a bet on 2003. (IMHO Pocket PC's going to remain a niche outside of the Enterprise market until they can release a sub-$250 color device, which probably won't be until at least mid-2002.)

Sounds to me that John has learned hubris from all this. Except the hiring his unqualified for everything (including Playboy) girlfriend as VP of... what now?

Anyway, after a tremendous fall, moving into a small market, with much easier goals, is probably the smartest thing he could have possibly done.

Um... Monkeystone? That sounds like the result of a post midnight 3 foot bong band-naming session to me.

-Andrew

What kills me is the URL of VoodooExtreme's interview.

http://www.voodooextreme.com/games/interviews/monkeyboy/

Monkeyboy. Subtle editorializing, Freudian slip, or honest mistake? In any case, it's hilarious.

'John Romero: TED 2001 is the latest incarnation of my classic Tilemap Editor. The last version of TED was version 5 and was used in the production of over 30 published games, although it only worked under DOS and was last used for Rise of the Triad Extreme. TED 2001 is a Win32-based version of ole TED for use in our PocketPC game development. And although unfinished as of now, I'm hoping it will have all the features of the original TED -- that would make it most powerful.

Stevie adds: TED will be available to all developers who publish through Monkeystone, along with some of the other tools we have developed. We are working hard to put together a good package of tools to make game development for the PocketPC quick and easy.'

*Fans himself to keep from passing out in shock*

A tile editor, you say? Give that man some capital! Note the "last used for ROTT Extreme" bit.

"What kills me is the URL of VoodooExtreme's interview."

I've started calling this "Truth in HTML." There was another one today where an NYT headline was, "Low Ratings Haunt Sitcoms With High-Profile Stars," but the link says "FLOP" in it: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/15/arts/television/15FLOP.html